The Stonecoast Newsletter Sept. 19,2011 Ahoy Stonecoasters, I trust all is well and guess what day it is, TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY! If you forgot, you are officially on my keelhaul list—yes, I have one, and it gets longer every time I encounter another moron on my morning commute. Since it is “talk like a pirate” day, I should do this issue completely in pirate-speak but that might be more of a pain to read. So instead, I prepared a mere list of pirates facts for you to read, study, and reflect on as you go about your day feeling, piratey. So here they are: • Walking the plank was never reported to be a method of punishment among pirates. Marooning was crueler and more fun. • “15 Men on a Dead Man’s Chest”, which we sang during the summer, isn’t a traditional sea shanty. It was developed for the stage production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island—Tis fun to sing anyway. • The word “pirate” was originally spelled with a “y” instead of an “i”. • Facebook has “pirate” listed as one of its official languages. Ponder and discuss if you see fit. I think the most important thing to do if you celebrate this holiday is to have fun. Besides, it only comes once a year. That is all for now. Please email your updates to [email protected] by Friday, SEPTEMBER 30. Send any feedback about the newsletter to Robin Talbot at [email protected]. Take care mates, Mariel 1 Upcoming Important Deadlines & Dates* DUE: OCTOBER 1, 2011 Genre Change Requests/Incompletes/Requests for Copies of Evaluations—A student must mail to the program office, a written request including an explanation of the circumstances that make a deferment necessary. If a student wishes to work in another of the program’s main genres for one entire semester, they must notify the MFA office. DUE: OCT. 1, 2011 (FOURTH SEMESTER STUDENTS ONLY) Presentation Descriptions 1st draft— Descriptions should be concise and no longer than one paragraph. The Mentor will review and may edit descriptions. DUE: OCTOBER 6, 2011 Room and Board Requests—Late requests will not be accepted. DUE: OCT. 7, 2011 (FOURTH SEMESTER STUDENTS ONLY) Submit Lines for Graduation Program—Students must submit a maximum of 25 words of original work, either one sentence/line or a combination. DUE: OCTOBER 15, 2011 Midterm Evaluations—Student midterm evaluations of faculty are sent by e-mail directly to the MFA office. Mid-terms are confidential; Faculty do not see midterm evaluations. DUE: OCTOBER 15, 2011 (FOURTH SEMESTER STUDENTS ONLY) Presentation Descriptions (final) —All final presentation descriptions are due. Descriptions not received by the deadline will not be included in the preliminary schedule. *Please remember that this is only a partial list of deadlines. A complete list can be found in your Stonecoast Community Handbook. 2 SCI News TWO POSITIONS OPEN FOR THE WINTER 2012 RESIDENCY IN HOWTH Two positions on the previously-filled roster for the January 4-11 2012 Stonecoast in Ireland residency in Howth, County Dublin, have come open. These positions can be taken by current students going into their second, third, fourth or fifth residency at Stonecoast, and they can also be filled by alumni who would like to combine the benefits of a Stonecoast residency with the pleasure of travel to Ireland. If you’d like to join us in Ireland in January 2012, please contact Ted Deppe at [email protected]. If you are interested in coming to Ireland at a later date, we will be putting out a call for the summer 2012 residency in November. Watch for the announcement and application forms to be posted on the listserv on Monday 7 November 2011. Alumni should contact Ted Deppe to express interest and if there are spaces we’d be happy to include you. Stonecoast News Current Student News MELODY FULLER was invited by ABC Radio to be a guest on their live morning broadcast in Los Angeles, to discuss her publication: Going To Washington D.C, Crying For Oscar Grant, III. ABC Radio also wanted to get Melody's reaction to her private meeting with President Barack Obama while she was on Martha's Vineyard during the summer. Melody was also invited by Dr. Charles J.Ogletree, Jr. a professor of law at Harvard University, to serve on a panel with him to discuss her work. On September 24, 2011, as a part of the Inauguration of Alecia A. DeCoudreaux, the first African American President of Mills College, she will be a featured author for The Writer's Cafe. Because of popular demand, The Griffith Review has created a special edition of her publication. The full piece is now available. http://griffithreview.com/store/melody-l-fuller-going-to-washington-dc http://griffithreview.com/contributors/melody-fuller ALEXANDRA OLIVER’s poem "The Untouchables" has received an international publication prize in the Atlanta Review's 2011 International Poetry Competition. The poem will be appearing in the Fall 2011 issue of the Atlanta Review, due out in October. Alumni News JESSICA de KONINCK's poem, "Earth," was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by U.S. 1 Worksheets. Her poem, "The Gold Ring," appears in the tenth anniversary issue of the Edison Literary Review. ALISON MCMAHAN's sci fi action screenplay, Imprinted, is a finalist for Best Screenplay at the Burbank Film Festival and at the Oaxaca Film Festival. It is Quarterfinalist in the Writers on the Storm Contest. Final winners for these contests have yet to be announced, but you can check for updates at www.ImprintedMovie.com Her screenplay Girl in Trunk, a coming-of-age-heist-thriller co-written with John Leary, is 3 nominated for Best Screenplay at the Jacksonville Film Festival (our joint horror/thriller script Heaven Sent won third prize at that festival last year) as well as for the CLAW award at the Terror Film Festival in Philadelphia (Heaven Sent got that honor last year too). Girl in Trunk is also semifinalist in the NexTV Writing and Pitching Awards (Heaven Sent made it to quarterfinalist in that contest) See www.GirlinTrunk.com Heaven Sent was also semifinalist in the Slamdance and Final Draft Competitions and finalist in Scriptoid and Storypro contests. See www.HeavenSentMovie.com ELLEN MEEROPOL is taking House Arrest on the road again this fall, with stops at the Salem Literary Festival, WriteAngles Writers Conference, and Wordstock. The novel was recently reviewed in the New Maine Times. [email protected]. BRANDI NEAL, CNF Winter 2011, has an essay published on Freshly Hatched, the online literary magazine for Freerange Nonfiction: A New York City Reading Series & Storytelling Collective: http://freerangenonfiction.com/. She read her essay at Freerange on June 1 and it was requested for publication in August. Read "The Nightbird" on Freshly Hatched: http://freerangenonfiction.com/?page_id=2268. Read more about Brandi at: www.brandineal.com. RENEE OLANDER and Elizabeth Searle are both guests of the 34th Annual ODU Literary Festival, Oct 3-7, 2011: http://www.lib.odu.edu/litfest/34th/index.htm MARY PAUER's short story, "Up In the Air Junior Birdsman," a second place winner in creative non fiction in Pure Ses Glass Writing Competition has been included in the anthology edited by Billie Travalini, No Place Like Here, dedicated to southern Delawre prose and poetry. Released August 20, 2011. Procedes support the Lewes Library, in Lewes Delawary. In another venue, the September edition of Delware Today Magazine features Ms. Pauer's short essay, "We Do Dirt." Now on newsstands. MIHKU PAUL (Summer 2010) has been accepted as a Presenter at AWP 2012-Chicago, for her panel proposal, "Deep Impact: Four Writing Programs that Empower Youth and Engage Community." Two of her panelists, Susan Casey and Jeff Kass, are Stonecoast alumni. Mihku is also co-teaching a writing workshop with Cheryl Savageau, Abenaki Poet and Writer, at the TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) Conference at UNH on Sept. 24. She has been chosen as guest artist for the community arts project "Many Hands," a collaborative installation of art and writing, using Native approaches to teaching and learning with Portland High School and King Middle School, as well as students from The Telling Room, a non-profit drop-in center that fosters creative writing for teens. Mihku will read from her works-in-progress, with two other Maine writers, on September 15th at 3Fish Gallery, Portland, Maine. [email protected] MICHELLE SOUCY's flash fiction story, "What Was Born," will appear on EWR: Short Stories later this month. [email protected] MARY SNELL (P’06) co-taught a two-week writing workshop, “Writing and Myth: A Creative Writing Workshop” on Lesvos, Greece, this past summer through the University of Southern Maine Summer Session. She and Betsy Sholl (former Maine Poet Laureate) worked with 12 students in daily workshops as well as giving lectures and guiding field trips in Athens and on Lesvos (including a donkey trek!) Special guest lecturers/readers were poet A.E. Stallings and fiction writer Nick Papandreou, brother of the current Prime Minister of Greece. This workshop most likely will be repeated in 2012. Email Mary at 4 [email protected] if you are interested. ROBERT E. STUTTS (PopFiction S10) has two poems in the third issue of Fantastique Unfettered, out now. [email protected] CHRISTINE TIERNEY's (Poetry ' 09) poem, "Chill," has been accepted for publication in the Cider Press Review. TAMRA WILSON (Summer '11) has been invited to participate in the Vistiing Writers Series at Gaston College, Dallas, NC on Oct.